This I Believe Essay-Beauty is Simple

As I looked down at the bright orange starfish I saw beauty. The way it clung to the rock as the surf came over it and pulled away, and how it and its friends lined the rocky bowls full of sea life. The chilling water in the small communities made my fingers tingle as I reached down to touch the sea urchins and sea anemones. I observed the gray sky around me, like a blanket that stretched out until it hit the sea and had its horizon broken by the black pillars of rock jetting up out of the ocean. Under the cold black waves, whales and dolphins glided through the water. As I watched the sloshing waves out by the black rocks, snow white seals lounged on rocks and played in the icy water. All of these creatures live such a simple but beautiful life. They almost live in a primitive setting, undisturbed by the outer goings on of humans.

I believe that beauty is found in the most simplistic things. My experience at tide pools in Oregon altered the way I look at life forever. I saw the real meaning of life in the way everything coexisted so peacefully and harmoniously. It worked together in a way that was so stunning I never wanted to leave. But instead sit there for the rest of eternity in a serene state of mind and have to do nothing to feel the beauty of life, but look at the clean and undemanding universe around me.

If everyone took only a moment of time to observe the things they were passionate about, then they could see beauty in even the plainest things. Beauty comes when something is effortless and not overly contemplated. The realization of it creeps up upon you in seconds and hits you like a brick wall, sudden and unexpected. But the aftershock is the most emotional part. I never expected to have such a new idea brought upon me so suddenly, because of my ignorance to new ideas. And it’s not just me, but at times everyone is ignorant to beauty because they don’t know where to look. Sometimes you don’t have to look very hard because beauty is not a complex thing, but simple and so it is found in simplistic ideas and objects. Because it is so simple, our search for it must be as well. After a shock like that you have a new state of mind, and sometimes drift off in your own new thoughts of the world and its uncomplicated beauty.

I watched the small crabs skitter across rocks and through tiny crevices in their own adventures. It held my attention for many minutes. I was hypnotized by the small fish swishing around in the small pools of salty water, or watching the fog swirl around atop the ocean and glide over the waves. Beautiful and simple in the plainest words, because beauty is found in the most simplistic things.

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This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.